The Collective Consumer-Brand Relationship

ABSTRACT - This article theorizes about the collective consumer-brand relationship: a shared connection between a brand and a social collectivity (or interpretive community). Differential cultural competency among consumers allows them to inscribe brands with particularistic meanings and form collective relationships with them. Collective action frames, a type of interpretive strategy negotiated in social interaction, provide the means of connection among a collectivity of consumers to a brand. Frames inscribe brands with the collective beliefs, values, and social identities of an associated interpretive community. An ethnographic study of gay men was performed, discovering the cultural meanings associated with brands used by men in the gay community of a large North American city. A theoretical framework is advanced that links consumers’ brand interactions applying frames to brands, social processes that change collective consumption frames, and the collective brand relationships that result from application of the frames and occurrence of these social processes. Discussion includes implications for our understanding of realized positioning and the strategic space of brands.

Citation:

Steven M. Kates (2003) ,"The Collective Consumer-Brand Relationship", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 30, eds. Punam Anand Keller and Dennis W. Rook, Valdosta, GA : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 159.

Advances in Consumer Research Volume 30, 2003     Page 159

THE COLLECTIVE CONSUMER-BRAND RELATIONSHIP

Steven M. Kates, Simon Fraser University

ABSTRACT -

This article theorizes about the collective consumer-brand relationship: a shared connection between a brand and a social collectivity (or interpretive community). Differential cultural competency among consumers allows them to inscribe brands with particularistic meanings and form collective relationships with them. Collective action frames, a type of interpretive strategy negotiated in social interaction, provide the means of connection among a collectivity of consumers to a brand. Frames inscribe brands with the collective beliefs, values, and social identities of an associated interpretive community. An ethnographic study of gay men was performed, discovering the cultural meanings associated with brands used by men in the gay community of a large North American city. A theoretical framework is advanced that links consumers’ brand interactions applying frames to brands, social processes that change collective consumption frames, and the collective brand relationships that result from application of the frames and occurrence of these social processes. Discussion includes implications for our understanding of realized positioning and the strategic space of brands.

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